Improvement in wash-boards



. TOWERS.

WILLIAM H fia ezziazz' UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

WILLIAM H. TOWERS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN WASH-BOARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 120,346, dated October 24, 187].

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM H. TOWERS, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have made a new and useful Improvement in Wash-Boards and I hereby declare the following to be a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing whichforms a part of this specification, in which Figure 1 is a plan view, and Fig. 2 a vertical cross-section of a washboard made according to my invention.

The following description will enable any one skilled in the art to make and use my invention.

In the drawing, A A are the side pieces of the frame made in the usual way. B O are crosspieces of the same width as the side piece. D is a panel between B and C, so as to form a soapbox on both sides of the board. h h h is a series of rolls let into the side pieces A. The second roll from the bottom and top should be fastened at each end to the side pieces A, so as to form, with cross-piece B, a frame. The lower and upper roll should turn in bearings in the side pieces A. K is an endless belt or apron made of canvas, cloth, or other fabric, which moves around the upper and lower roll. The several rolls should be set in the side pieces so as not to touch each other. The arrangement of the rolls in the frame gives the usual rough surface required in Wash-boards. The covering of these rolls with the belt or apron made of cloth, duck, waterproof cloth, rubber-cloth, and the like, gives a cloth-surface on which to rub the clothes to be washed. As the clothes to be washed are rubbed down upon theapron it will be pressed down between the rolls so as to form a surface very much like the common ribbed surface as heretofore used, with this important diiferenee and advantage, that the rubbing-surface is canvas or some other textile fabric, which will not wear the clothes or blister the most delicate hands in the operation of washing. The rubbing-surface being cloth, the same as the goods to be washed, the water will be pressed through. Besides, it is well known that clothes are much easier washed by rubbing one surface of one piece of cloth against another than by rubbing them against a hard impervious surface of wood or metal. The belt or apron K is made to revolve as required, and also by the operation of rubbing upon it. Either side of the board may be used at pleasure.

I do not claim a frame having either stationary or movable rolls, as these have been frequently described heretofore; but

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-- The combination of a frame having mounted within it a series of rolls covered with an apron or belt, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

WM. H. TOWERS.

Witnesses G. A. PEASE, 

